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Techinically, Lloyd did walk away. I doubt Michigan would have fired him, despite the frustration of that season. He was man enough to understand that the program was ready to move ahead and he stepped aside. This is not in defense of the Albom article, it is what it is, but to say that Lloyd had no other choice is crazy talk. If he wanted to coach another year I would be very surprised if the University didn't grant him that luxury.

Carr could have stayed. And the overwhelming majority of the fanbase would have gone apeshit about it (justifiably so). Albom is acting like the decision took place in a vacuum and is acting like the decision was made for fantastically noble "it's only a game" reasons. He is full of shit and is pandering to simpletons. The fact that he is doing it three years after this would have actually been a story is even more ridiculous.

But no one that really matters would have. The decision was made in the vacuum of the Michigan Athletic Department. And Lloyd made his decision there. If you think he was going to face any significant pressure to leave after a 9-4 season, you're crazy. Martin probably would have been happy to retire before Lloyd. Barring things really going in the tank, he was coach for life. What fans want means jack shit. Because if fans going apeshit meant anything, Rich would have been gone by now. Obviously it doesn't. Lloyd left because he didn't have the will to coach anymore. If you think he left his players because fans like you didn't like how the season went, you kidding yourself.

I'm not saying Carr was going to get fired or that he even should have gotten fired. I'm saying Albom is an idiot for equating Carr leaving a couple years after he really wanted to retire in the first place while under immense scrutiny/criticism with Nick Saban potentially deciding to stop going undefeated every regular season at a school (and state) where everyone thinks he is God.

Albom's story is basically the equivalent of congratulating me on my decision to stop banging supermodels, published three years after the mannish Mormon girl I took to the prom refused to even give me a handy in the back of the limo. This would then be followed by an underhanded rebuke of guys like Tom Brady who bang supermodels on the reg, despite the terrible risk of being awesome that such behavior poses.

To talk about handys and supermodels. But I'm a bit lost on this metaphor.

Is the 2006 team a mannish Mormon girl? 'Cause I always thought that the criticism of Lloyd was that there was enough talent on that team to challenge for the MNC. Wouldn't that make the 2006 team like a super hot girl?

Also who, in this wondrous journey, is profferring the underhanded rebuke of Tom Brady? Albom or Lloyd? Also, just to confirm: when we're talking about Tom Brady banging supermodels, we're talking about actual human supermodels, and not talented football teams, right? I wasn't sure if the metaphor was still kickin' in the second sentence. Are you then saying that Lloyd (or Albom) is opposed to awesomeness in all manifestations, including the banging of supermodels (and/or talented football teams)?

You have to accept the premises that a) Supermodels are the best women with which to have sex (therefore, in this metaphor, to have sex with women who are not supermodels is tantamount to coaching football teams to relatively lesser success) and b) that to have sex with supermodels makes one "awesome." OK? OK.

To Albom, Lloyd "walked away" from having sex with women altogether (i.e. he decided to quit being a football coach) when he could have, in PurpleStuff's argot, "banging supermodels." PurpleStuff disputes the notion that Lloyd could have, or was, "banging supermodels." To the contrary, he was having a hard time persuading a "mannish Mormon girl" (i.e. not a supermodel) to jerk him off. Or, he was having difficulty coaching football games to any success (and certainly not to "awesome" levels of success).

I see how you'd be confused by the entrance of Tom Brady, a football player, into this equation, especially on the non-football related end of it. See, Tom Brady has sex with women — supermodels, even — in a non-metaphorical sense. If Tom Brady, all of a sudden, decided to stop having sex with women at all (or even traded in his supermodel wife for a mannish Mormon girl) — PurpleStuff implies — then that would be worthy of some recognition. However, if Tom Brady became ugly and lost his job and fortune, and Gisele left him, and he was no longer — even with medical help — capable of achieving an erection (thereby making him incapable of having sex with supermodels), he would be undeserving of a column championing his insight and moral rectitude in knowing the "right time" to stop having sex with supermodels. Other side of the equation: Lloyd Carr DID get ugly and lose the ability to fuck supermodels (i.e. he was no longer effective at coaching football teams) and, rather than "walking away" from coaching because of his insight and moral rectitude, he was forced by the circumstances into giving up coaching, as he was not very good at it.

Albom, though, disingenuously leaves out the "forced by circumstances part" and seems to favorably compare Lloyd to men who are nearing Lloyd's age when he "walked away." These men are still Tom Brady — they continue to wake up after a long night of passionate lovemaking and look into the face of Gisele Búndchen (err, Mark Ingram). But, Albom seems to wonder, Isn't the time coming soon for Nick Saban to stop fucking supermodels by choice? Or is he a lesser man than Lloyd Carr, a man who stopped fucking supermodels, though he bore an undying love for fucking supermodels and a continuing ability to do such?

The point is that Albom ignores the fact that Carr had come under incredible scrutiny and criticism during his final season. Criticism that would probably only have mounted if/when we lost to Utah (likely since they went undefeated and beat Bama in a BCS Bowl) and/or ND (likely considering Carr's record against them and the monsoon conditions in South Bend) and/or OSU (likely considering they were a BCS bowl team and game was in Columbus) which would have made him 1-7 against Tressel.

Acting as if Carr merely decided "nope, fooball just isn't for me anymore" while completely ignoring the gathering shitstorm gives Carr credit (and there are plenty of actual things he did that deserve tons of praise/credit) simply for attempting to avoid the shitstorm. If anything, it appears Carr stayed on longer than he wanted to, not that he made some sort of moral/noble decision about hanging up his whistle to enjoy the important things in life (to Albom) like summer breezes through a screen door, baseball doubleheaders, and fixing the bicycles of all the youngsters in the neighborhood, or some other contrived no-longer-existent bullshit designed to cynically pull at the sentimental heartstrings of the elderly and the stupid.

In short, Albom is the one that sucks. Carr is a great guy and was a pretty damn good football coach. Any number of articles/interviews about Carr could have been interesting, but instead Albom decided to just drop a load of populist poop on the page to backup some ridiculous "winning isn't everything" argument marketed at the morons who read Parade magazine.

How do you figure Carr staying on longer than he wanted to means he didn't hang it up for reasons other than avoiding the storm? Pointing out that he wanted to leave a year earlier rather than stay to coach a year where all the pieces appeared to be in place for something special does not support your argument.

I have no idea who was "available" to hire at that time and really don't see the point of going down that road - it's water under the bridge. Harbaugh certainly wasn't the "darling" everyone has made him out to be now.

Sure, it would have been nice to have had someone on staff to pass the baton to and carry on without missing a beat. However, the only two folks that would/could have been considered were English and Debord. Neither of which were ready for the job. English has his hands full at EMU. Debord had issues of his own running the Offense. Not sure where he is now - but the fact that he isn't a HC at a major program shows that he wasn't ready when the position was open.

I wish we would have done what Texas has done and hired someone to be an offense or defensive coordinator as well as coach in waiting.

That's exactly what we did. His name was Mike DeBord. Although he was a complete disaster as CMU's head coach, Carr believed in him and wanted him to be his successor. But the Horror destroyed DeBord's credibility with the fanbase, and forced Martin to go outside.

A head coach of a major program is constantly under pressure to win, and not just have a winning record but to win a conference or national championship. I'm sure these head coaches only get 3 to 5 hours of sleep a night, even in the off season!

There was a rumor that Lloyd was going to retire 2 to 3 years before he did and I think several coaches used that as a recruiting advantage over us!

Overall, I was pleased with Lloyd's coaching career at Michigan. There were a few big games I wish he would of won, like the 2006 OSU game. After winning a lot of games against OSU in the first half of his coaching stint. I didn't like all the loses to Tressel after he was hired at OSU. Overall, at this point in time, Carr remains my second favorite coach behind Bo. Mo is my third favorite. I like RR and once he turns this team around I'm sure he will pass Mo and may surpass Carr one day? I'm not sure if anyone will ever take the lead over Bo as my all time favorite Michigan coach.

I think we took Carr for granted in so many ways. He owned MSU and Penn State. He pretty much owned the Big Ten. He continued the bowl streak. But I think the thing that killed him was he could no longer beat Ohio State. And that became magnified. All the other good he did was overlooked.

Notice he said "worth anything." That's not necessarily the same as 4-star/5-star. Exhibit A: Cobrani Mixon. (Yes, he's all-MAC or whatever now, but conventional wisdom says that he washed out at Michigan.)

Who got in contact with Jesus. He claims that 250 words does now technically pass as an article as long as it consists of lots of fragment sentences and really, really short paragraphs. Frankly, though, I don't even believe that ND contacted Jesus to begin with.

RR is a great coach, the right man for the job, and I hope he stays for a long time.

Carr won a National Championship, the only Michigan team to do so in my lifetime, was loved by his team, and had a great overall record, going out with a splendid win against Florida. I loved him, and am thrilled he was our coach.

Carr needed to move on, and tried to do so in a way that was most beneficial to Michigan. I strongly suspect that he actually stayed LONGER than he wanted to, in order to please Pres. MS Coleman and yacht boy Bill Martin.

Albom is a good writer . . . some like him and some don't, just like some people love fish and some don't, some people love good caviar and some don't. Everyone has different tastes. I personally enjoyed "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," "Tuesdays with Morrie," and "Have a Little Faith." They may not be your cup of tea, but I liked them. Actually enjoyed listening to "Five People" with my whole family on vacation a couple summers ago.

My point? I am irritated with those who feel the need to be negative about everything. With those who need to bash Carr. With those who feel the need to diss Rodriguez. With those who dog Albom. Do you need to be Pollyanna and say they're all wonderful? No. But yeah, if you can't say something nice, why do you need to say anything at all? Ccomments that "I'll never respect Carr" and "Mitch Albom sux and rites pablum" and "RR is on the hot seat and should be let go" and "What's wrong with GERG?" are old. So what do I suggest? How bout:

(If you hated Carr) "Lloyd was ok, but we really needed RR."

(If you can't stand RR) "Lloyd was great, and we'll have to see how things work out with RR."

(If you don't like Albom) "Mitch isn't my favorite writer, and he doesn't provide anything new for those of us close to the UofM program, but maybe what he says is helpful to those outside of Michigan."

“Top to bottom Michigan is about excellence, greatness. You have my pledge I will carry forward the excellence of Michigan football." Jim Harbaugh, December 30, 2014

Overall, this is a great post. I just have one nitpick - I've come to like Rich, and I think he's a good coach. I really think he'll succeed here if he's given more time.

But I'm still not entirely sure that he's going to produce results as good or better than Lloyd yet. So I'm someone who thinks Lloyd was, overall, a great (if sometimes immensely frustrating) coach at Michigan, but still likes Rodriguez. I think we need to be honest with ourselves, though - there have been plents of extenuating circumstances, but the jury remains out on Rodriguez until his record here improves. I think it's going to, but I still want to see those little numbers next to Michigan at the end of the year.

Lloyd did a great job; I hope Rich does even better than Lloyd did (how about 2 National Championships? ;-) ); but Rich has a long way to go just to equal Lloyd...and if he does that, he'll have done a pretty great job of coaching too.